Heptamethine dyes
Heptamethine dyes are a subclass of chemical compounds within the
The characteristics of heptamethine dyes can be understood by comparing research data on different dyes within the family. For example, the IR-780 dye exhibits a peak spectral absorption of around 780 nm.[3]
Optical properties
The absorption and fluorescence spectrum of heptamethine dyes are in the
Patents
International patents on the use of heptamethine dyes for use in photographic use have also been approved and instituted. Fuji film placed a patent titled “Heptamethine cyanine compound, near infrared absorbing ink, near infrared absorbing sheet and silver halide photographic material” in 1999 and a follow-up international patent 6072059 in 2000.
Heptamethine dyes for near infrared fluorescent imaging are manufactured by such companies as Intrace Medical, Lumiprobe, Cyandye, LI-COR Biosciences - GmbH and others.